The melon on the right is the first honeydew type we’ve harvested, having already fallen off its vine when I checked it.
I decided to harvest a few young eggplant today, even though they can still get larger. I really look forward to trying them. The last time we were able to grow either of these, we only managed to have very little ones to harvest before the frost. We enjoyed them, so I expect we will enjoy them at their bigger size, too.
The two together are the Little Finger eggplant, while the one on the other side of the green Seychelle beans is a classic eggplant. The Seychelle beans growing with the Crespo squash, have had a growth spurt and suddenly have loads of flowers. There are even a few green beans from the single plant growing with the Carminat beans.
The purple beans are almost all Royal Burgundy bush beans. There’s just a few Carminat pole beans in with them. They seem to be picking up on the blooms, too. I guess they liked the rain we finally got last night? We didn’t get a significant amount, though. I probably should have watered the garden this morning, anyway, as we got pretty hot today.
The peppers are the Dragonfly variety. Some of the pepper plants were falling over under the weight of their fruit. As I was straightening one to add more support to it, a branch broke off! Those are the Sweet Chocolate peppers, with only one starting to show a blush of colour. They should still ripen, so I left them on the branch and brought them inside, too.
I did not harvest any tomatoes, today. We harvested so many yesterday, I decided to wait. Last night, I decided to start a slow cooker tomato sauce, to use up as many tomatoes, and some other vegetables we had on hand, as I could. That included a couple of Uzbek Golden carrots, a couple of small onion bulbs, that one shallot I found pulled up, several cloves of garlic, the remaining beans we had, and even one Purple Beauty pepper that hadn’t been used yet, all chopped very fine. I added the usual salt and pepper, plus what herbs I had in my cupboard, some olive oil and apple cider vinegar.
Then I started adding the tomatoes.
I used all the San Marzano tomatoes I could find. Those didn’t yield much per tomato. They were a lot like peppers, with a hollow space in most, and the seeds clustered around the core. That did make them easy to deseed and core, but there wasn’t much tomato left after that.
All the Black Cherry tomatoes we had went in, and then I started on the Forme de Couer. Those, I just kept chopping up until I couldn’t fit any more in the slow cooker. No de-seeding or coring needed with those!
That still left us with quite a few tomatoes – and I didn’t even start on the basin of tomatoes we picked yesterday!
We kept the slow cooker going through the night, with occasional stirring. The warm setting on the slow cooker seems pretty high, so even after the time was done and it switched from Low to Warm, it continued cooking.
In the morning, one of my daughters took the immersion blender to it, and we turned it back to low. I propped the lid slightly with a wooden spoon to let the steam out, though we eventually put it on high, so we can cook it down to a thicker consistency.
My brother and his wife came out this morning. My brother was towing a piece of farm equipment that was very wide, and my SIL followed in her car with her hazard lights going. He was able to only go about 50-60 kph and sometimes, he later told me, that was too fast!
When they got here, my SIL gave me some vinyl table protectors she had been about to put into recycling until she heard I’d picked some up to put around the eggplant and pepper bed as a sort of greenhouse. I was quite happy to take them! I had a large melon for them and it reminded her to ask if I had any more tomatoes I was willing to part with.
Oh, was I happy to hear that!
I bagged up the last of the Forme De Couer I didn’t have room for last night, then brought another bag and the basin for her to take as much more as she wanted! (She can’t come into the house, as she is allergic to cats.) They’ve had so much going on this year, they didn’t really do much in the garden, and the few tomatoes they planted this year aren’t ripening yet, so I was more than happy to share the bounty! We still have tomatoes in the freezer from last year! 😄
My SIL headed home soon after, and I helped my brother secure a new tarp over the box on the dump truck. He’d already parked and unhooked the machine he’d hauled, and was planning to come back with another load on the trailer.
After he left, I was able to work on a few things I haven’t been able to get to, with all the running around I did last week, but that will be for my next post!
Okay, Re-Farmer. Take a deep breath, and relax a bit!
What.
A.
Day.
Well. Morning, really. It’s only mid-afternoon, as I start this!
I had a 9am appointment with the guy that runs homecare for my mother’s town, and area. After feeding the outside cats, including giving Gouda his personal bowl of lysine supplemented cat soup, I had to leave it to my daughters to do the morning rounds. Instead, I went through a copy of one of the assessment forms the homecare guy had given me a copy of, after his last visit with my mother.
To recap: my mother wants to go into a nursing home. A very specific nursing home. Back in July, we went to her doctor about it, and she started the ball rolling. What we didn’t know at the time was this was something that gets decided by the home care department, not the doctor. The doctor does have to approve it and fill out some paperwork, but normally, people who need it tend to go from a hospital, after some sort of incident, into long term care without ever going back home in between. My mother is not at that stage. After he did a panel with her, assessing her physical needs, it was clear she was not that far gone… yet. He recommended supportive living.
There is only one supportive living place my mother would be willing to live in, and after looking into it, today was to start the process of application to get her in.
Which would put her on a year long waiting list.
There was, however, that behavioural assessment form.
When I first started going through it, after he gave it do me, I’d read a question and think, oh, no, she doesn’t do that. Then I’d read the examples and realize, wait… yes. She does that. Has done it for years. It’s getting worse as she gets older. Yes, this is a problem we are dealing with.
The thing is, we’ve been dealing with a lot of these for so long, we don’t even think about it anymore. I had to see it written down as questions, with examples, to realize just how far she was deteriorating in this category.
I had talked to him on the phone about this a little bit, but today we had to go through all the other assessment forms he needs to go through, as well.
We were at it for two hours.
I am so glad he was able to fit me in this week! He’s going to be away all next week, the last week of the month is the busiest time for me, and I had only one day available – and that would be the week I would expect the exterminators to try and visit my mother’s unit to confirm the bed bugs are gone. If she doesn’t let them in for a third time, she will get evicted. I’m hoping to be there that day to prevent that.
Long story as short as I can make it:
When it comes to her physical needs, her recent diagnoses have actually been helpful for her, in that she actually wants to go into a personal care home (aka: long term care aka: nursing home). He updated the file on her medical changes.
With some things, it’s hard to say. As my mother is living independently, I’m not there to see if, for example, she can or can’t wash herself properly. All I can say is, she refuses to shower, and does not have a bath tub, so all she sponge bathes herself every night. Is she doing a good job? I can’t say. I can say, she refuses to use the commode her was able to requisition for her, even when I found that her bucket fits perfectly in it, making it easy for her to empty it herself. What is she doing instead? I’m not sure.
With other things, I can see she has made adjustments to work around her mobility issues. Can she dress herself? Yes, because she only wears clothing she can put on herself. No buttons. No zippers. No ties or snaps. Can she feed herself? Yes, but she has trouble eating, because she refuses to have her dentures fixed to account for a tooth that was removed – a tooth that her one of her dentures was held by. Her being able to find work arounds or just put up with things puts her on the line between categories.
We did talk about having home care come to her place to prepare meals, and to make sure she takes her medications on time and properly. They can do bulk meal preparation for her either once every two weeks, or once a week, or someone can come by once a day for a meal prep.
If it was once a day, it would be something very quick – I think they’re only allowed 15 minutes. So it would be something like making a sandwich and heating up a bowl of soup. Everything would have to be ready in advance so that a meal just needed to be assembled quickly.
If it was weekly or bi-weekly, someone would come in for 2 hours or something like that. They’d do all the cooking, divide it up into individual portions, and set those in the freezer (except those that would be used right away).
We decided it would be best to try my mother with every two weeks, then adjust as seems appropriate. As the person who does my mother’s grocery shopping, I would have to talk to the home care person about meal plans and what they would need.
We also talked about my mother’s medications, and how she’s not taking them as she should be. Someone would be coming to her place three times a day to make sure she takes them. They can only do that with medications that are in bubble packs. They’re not allowed to touch anything from a bottle. That includes the new eye vitamins my mother is now on.
Then we got to going through the behavioural assessment.
As we went through the questions, I had to give examples and, in come cases, explanations. This included telling him about what’s going on with our vandal, and her habit of reaching out to him and poking the bear, in spite of our efforts to protect her from him.
I’ll have to get back to that one, later, as we have some new crazy going on from there!
As we went through the different questions and he struggled to take notes that would make sense, there were a few times when he had to just sit back and talk about some of the things. Even things that happened to her when she was still living in Poland, and the atrocities she witnessed and survived. He even made note that she would likely need what they call “spiritual care” that is available, typically for combat veterans and former prisoners of war.
I gave other examples of some of my mother’s behaviour, including something she did during a road trip with my brother and his wife a few years ago, and some more recent examples while driving with me. I also told him about what she did to stab my brother in the back, which she still doesn’t recognize as being at all a problem. After a while of this, he stopped and sat back, hesitating.
“I don’t want to sound rude,” he started, pausing to try and find the words.
“It’s like a movie,” he finally said. A movie where all this crazy, insane stuff keeps happening to people, that’s so over the top. I basically said, “yeah; and when they see the movie, people would find it unbelievable and unrealistic, because people don’t behave that way, right?”
Yup.
Even with all this, though, my mother is a very unusual case. He’s not even sure she qualifies for supportive living, because a lot of her needs are beyond what they offer, but she doesn’t qualify for assisted living at all. Her behavioral assessment, however, may actually be what puts her in personal care – which is what she wants. She’s just on the edge.
In the end, he’s going to have to have a consultation with the person he deals with that makes the final decision. He does know, my mother needs help, and we can’t give it to her. Regular home care can’t give it to her, either.
On the plus side, since all this started because my mother went to the doctor to try and get into a nursing home back in July, she already has the doctor’s form on file that is recent enough, along with the chest X-rays they require. She’s also supposed to get a brain scan, but we’re still waiting on a call for that. She’s already been visited by the geriatric care person, and the occupational therapist. They will need a copy of my brother’s PoA paperwork, which I have and can get to them soon. As PoA, he’s first contact for next of kin, while I’m second contact, as I’m physically closest to her.
He printed out what he needed, and then he had to deal with something quickly before going to my mother’s. I called my mother to let her know we were going to be coming over, only to find she had been still in bed! She had time to get dressed, at least, but when I got there, she didn’t even have her glasses, and was all worried because her floor wasn’t swept.
My sister was coming over to do some housekeeping for her!
She was going to get me to call my sister to cancel, and I told her, we couldn’t be that long. I did tell her that I would need to take her remaining bubble packs to have the new medication and vitamins included.
I am so glad she’s going to have someone come and help her with her medications.
When I told her about including them in her bubble packs, she started to get angry, saying, they get taken separately. Which they don’t, and I’m not sure where she got that from. I was still trying to explain to her about how home care can only help if it’s in bubble packs when the home care guy arrived.
He needed her list of medications, including the new prescription and supplement. As we were talking about her new prescription, she mentioned she’d taken it twice.
??
It’s once a day; the vitamins are twice a day.
Nope.
She took one last night, at about midnight, then taken one this morning… I’m not sure why she took one this morning.
Oh! Crap!
I need to call my mother right now…
Oh, I am so glad I wrote this out and caught on to this!
Yes, my mother took this once a day pill last night, then again this morning – and would have taken it again tonight, if I hadn’t just called!
And THAT is a good example of why she needs home care to help her take her medications!
That was one of the things the home care guy needed to hear her agree to, and sign for, along with the meal preparation.
She also needed to sign a form saying that yes, she agrees to going into a personal care home, when a space becomes available. We explained to her that this might not be where she wants to go at first, but once she’s in the system, she will be higher on the list for a transfer, should a space become available where she wants to be. She just needs that foot in the door.
While the home care guy was there, my mother just happened to launch into a tirade towards him, just like some of the examples I gave him earlier. Some of it, anyone in home care sees pretty regularly, but then she went sideways and made it about something else entirely, making connections where there shouldn’t have been any at all.
When he was ready to leave, I grabbed what was left of my mother’s bubble packs and her new stuff for the pharmacy and walked out with him, and we were able to talk about what just happened.
He told me it would probably take a couple of weeks for the process to work its way through. He has a lot of paperwork to submit, and needs to talk to a few people about my mother’s case – and he’s going to be away for all of next week, as well.
He is a total gem. Sadly, when he gets back, he won’t be staying for much longer, as he’ll be moving to another office, so we’ll be dealing with someone else before long. He’ll be going over all his case files with this person before he moves to the other office, though.
I then went to the pharmacy and explained the situation and asked if they could add the new items to my mother’s bubble packs. My mother had mentioned the pharmacy had called her before I got there, talking about her next set of bubble packs.
When I said who this was for, the pharmacist assistant I was talking to started telling me, I just spoke to her, and I’m sorry if I seemed a bit rude.
???
WP AI generated image
Every time the pharmacy calls about her bubble pack refills, my mother gives them a hard time, saying she still has lots, and it’s too early. I keep telling her, she needs to get her refills BEFORE she runs out, but she doesn’t get it. Well, the last time she did this, they held back. When she ran out and came to get her refills and they weren’t ready, she apparently chewed out whoever was at the counter about it not being ready. So when she talked to my mother today, and my mother tried to give her a hard time about it being too early, etc., again, she told me mother, no, this is the date. This is when they’ll be ready.
I think they were relieved to hear my mother is going to be getting home care to help with her medications!
There was only one hang up.
Bubble packs can only have prescription medications in them.
The eye vitamins are not a prescription, so they couldn’t include them.
The pharmacist asked me about the eye doctor, and it turns out they know each other. He will call the eye clinic and get an actual prescription for these supplements from him.
Until then, they would pack 10 days worth of the eye vitamins in their own, separate bubble packs.
As for the new prescription, it says once a day, but doesn’t say when. It’s at night that she has issues, so that’s why she was going to take them in the evening – and why she took one last night. That was the first one she took, even though I brought them for her the day before.
It was going to take them about an hour to update the current bubble packs, so I took advantage of that to go for lunch and update the family a bit.
By the time they were ready and I brought them back to my mother’s, my sister had showed up, done the housekeeping she was going to do, and was getting ready to leave. I needed to explain the bubble packs to my mother, so my sister stays so she’d be up to date, too.
So I went through it all, explaining why the supplements were in their own bubble packs, but she needs to take them with her morning and evening (breakfast and supper) pills, and that the new prescription was with that last pill of the day she’s supposed to take before bed.
That’s why I had to call my mother just now.
The new pill is in with tonight’s bubble pack. She’s already taken one this morning.
After confirming that yes, my mother did take the new prescription pill this morning, as well as taking one last night, I told her to NOT take the one that’s in the bubble pack for tonight, because she’s already taken today’s pill.
I repeated this a few times, and even told her to go ahead and take it out now, and put it somewhere else, but I’m not completely confident she’ll remember.
She was very glad I called about it, though, because yes, she would have taken that pill again tonight, if I hadn’t.
She also realized that I brought back the bubble packs, but not the bottles with the rest of the pills. I told her that the pharmacy is keeping them so they can be included in her new bubble pack refills, as she has already paid for them.
Anyhow… I’m ahead of myself.
It took me a while to explain the bubble packs to my mother, and the times to take them. Even my sister had to chime in to reinforce what I was saying. My mother has a very had time grasping the times on the bubble packs. She’s been taking her morning and evening pills at 5am and 5pm. Why those times, I have no idea, but that’s what she settled on. Only recently did she say she changed to 6am and 6pm, so she could sleep a bit more.
I told her, when home care starts coming to help with the pills three times a day, for the first two they’ll be coming for breakfast and supper – so she won’t have to get up so early anymore! She can sleep in.
She seemed to like that idea!
While we were talking, some mail was slid under my mother’s door, so I opened it for her. It turned out to be her ambulance bill. I was surprised it was only $250 The last I heard, it cost more than $400.
It included a survey on how the paramedics did, and so I started helping her go through that. She got really angry and first, saying, how can they expect her to remember? It was so long ago! (It’s been maybe 2 months?) Then she started saying, the paramedics treated her much better than the people at the hospital, before launching into a story that, at first, we thought was about the paramedics, but was actually about something in the hospital. It included some pretty racist comments, but she talked about how she was being moved around in a wheelchair while her coat and purse were left in an examination room. Long story short, while they insisted she check her purse to make sure everything was there (I’d say it was really obvious to them she believed they would steal from her), she said all her money and ID, etc. where there. However, she now says someone stole “pictures” (which could have included clippings from magazines, newspapers, printouts… ) from her purse.
Of course, the accusation included racist rants.
When I asked, why would anyone take pictures from her purse…
I didn’t get to add, instead of her money or whatever, when she started to get into “that” mode, at which point, my sister said it was time to go!
So we said our goodbyes, then I stayed a bit longer and talked some more about how it went with the home care guy. I explained how she’s just on the edge of things, because she can still do things like feed herself and dress herself, but has other issues. I told her, he needs to consult with someone about her situation, to figure out where is best for her. She was just really happy to know that going to a nursing home is an actual possibility now.
By the time I left, though, I felt like a wrung out washcloth.
But, it’s done. The process is well on its way.
Now, if she can just keep herself from getting evicted, that would be nice!
Oh, what a day it’s been! I’ll cover that in another post, though.
When I got home, my daughter was doing a walkabout, checking the yard for fallen branches and whatnot. We are supposed to get rain today but, so far, it’s just been sprinkles. I hope we get more, because I’ve been holding off watering the garden for it.
Instead of rain, we’ve been getting gusts of high winds. The catio Gouda is still in for 1 more night just has the temporary plastic roof over it, and the wind was tearing it loose from the cord that’s tying it down. We ended up putting a large floor mat on top to weigh it down, then added weights to that, to keep it from being blown off. I’m so glad we did, because that plastic would have been blown right off, not long after we did it!
Gouda, however, seems to be doing okay in the catio. He’s not too pleased about being stuck in there – and the other cats are not pleased about not being able to go in and steal his wet cat food! He only has to be in there for one more night. The catio’s walls are all mesh, but he does have his box nest with a blanket in there, and is using it. The catio is also sheltered by the house on one side, and a tree on the other, and branches above.
I’ll still be much happier when the isolation shelter is done, with a fully enclosed top level.
After we took care of that, we went through the garden beds and ended up picking another melon that had fallen of its stem, and a handful of the purple pole beans.
Then we started on the tomatoes in the old kitchen garden.
They haven’t been harvested for the last couple of days.
My daughter ended up bringing over the basin from the old kitchen to hold them all!
In the basin is a few San Marzano tomatoes, a whole lot of Forme de Couer tomatoes, and Black Cherry tomatoes.
In the second photo of the slide show, I was able to zoom in for a picture of a newly blooming female luffa flower. There is one other that I spotted, but there are no male flowers at all, anywhere. The male flowers bloom in clusters, making them easier to spot. I supposed it’s possible there are some way up high and hidden among the lilac branches, but it seems unlikely.
We have a whole bunch of things we will be doing with tomatoes over the next while; one of them is going to be using the slow cooker to make a sauce. It’s big enough that we should be able to use most of the tomatoes we’ve got waiting to be processed, along with a few other vegetables we have that can be included.
I won’t be starting on that for a while, though. I need to just sit and decompress for now. Much progress has been made in getting my mother into supportive living, as she has been wanting for some time now, but my goodness, am I ever mentally exhausted right now!!
I’ll cover that in my next post. Just writing about it, as much as I can on a public blog, will be very therapeutic!
The rescue covered the neuter, a set of vaccinations, ear mite treatment and deworming. We were sent home with medication to give him tonight, then another dose in 2 weeks.
He will be staying in the catio for a couple of days – if we can keep him in there! – so we can keep an eye on him. I found some reinforcing plates for the upper corners of the catio while Gouda was getting his surgery. Once those are on, and the top is painted, I also found neoprene lined washers to use when screwing the roof panels on, to prevent water leakage.
The Cat Lady and I were messaging and talking to each other throughout the morning. As I was waiting for the pick up time, she started asking me questions about his behaviour and how socialized he is.
She might have someone who can adopt him.
This is someone who needs a barn cat that is friendly, but not too friendly. She doesn’t want a cat that will get under the feet of people coming in to the horses. He might get under the feet at feeding time, but when there are other people around, he’s not to be seen anywhere. Which may be exactly what she’s looking for.
This wouldn’t happen for about a month, though, as we are to continue observing Gouda – in particular, his ears – over the next month. As expected, he had ear mites and, as seems to be usual, it was pretty bad. He’s going to need time to heal, and we are to try and see if there is any leaking.
We’ll do the best we can!
As I was picking him up and they were finishing off the invoice, the processed the payment from the rescue. I asked, trepidatiously, how much it cost. With the extra treatment and medications, plus the cost of the neuter, I was expecting it to be over $300.
It turned out to be a bit over $160! Which is an amazing price! The rescue gets a really good deal with this vet! Most vet clinics do offer discounts for rescues, but this one seems to be making the extra effort to make spays and neuters affordable.
If the rescue can also find a new home for Gouda, that would be really something. Especially after the person that was going to adopt Button backed out!
I don’t have any dates yet, but the Cat Lady said she had us booked for 2 more males next month.
Last night, I was able to reinforce the damage wire mesh along the door, after painting the base. The door still opens fully, with no obstructions, which was my goal.
My daughter did a second coat on the base, as the original white paint was showing through. She also painted the water stained underside of the “floating” shelves. Once the paint has cured for a couple of hours, it’ll be flipped upright, the plastic cover removed, and the rest will be painted. Then, the roof panels can be put on.
As for my day with my mother, she insisted on going back to her previous eye clinic, as she decided the one I took her too screwed up. The eye doctor there is an Asian woman, so my mother’s racism is in full play.
It turns out, the problem wasn’t her glasses at all. Since her last eye tests, she developed macular degeneration in one eye. It’s almost completely blind.
They can’t do anything for her out here, other than get her to take special vitamins to protect her other eye. She will need to go to the city once a month for eye injections. As the person that will be driving her, the specialist clinic will call me, probably within the next 2 weeks, to start that.
She is now glad she went to a “real doctor”. The thing is, I was in the room with her last appointment. I was there when they took images of her eyes. I saw the images when the doctor showed them to her. She did not have it then. This is something that can happen quickly, which is obviously how it is with her. But this doctor is a white man – and she knows his parents! – so that means he’s a good doctor, nor the other doctor.
*sigh*
After that, we had lunch, and ran into a friend of mine from high school! I spent time explaining things the eye doctor told us as we ate.
Then again as I drove her home.
Then again, after I picked up her meds, Tylenol and the eye vitamins she needs to take, and her groceries.
Then again, because she couldn’t figure out why she had 3 bottles of pills instead of two. She suddenly decided the vitamins were her prescription medication, and the prescription medication were the vitamins.
They have completely different instructions.
I ended up writing it all down, complete with illustrations, to help her remember.
At least she can still read with her left eye!
The monthly treatment she will be getting should fix her eye, though maybe not 100%. We don’t know how long it will take.
Today is our average first frost date. Thankfully, there is no sign of frost on the horizon! As I write this, we are at 27C/81F, with the humidex making it feel like 30C/86F, which I think it down from the predicted high of 28C/82F – or perhaps we haven’t reached the high, yet! Today’s overnight low is expected to be 11C/52F Starting tomorrow, and for the next week to 10 days, the overnight lows are expected to be about 15C/59F or higher, while risk of frost might not happen for most of this month at all, though we might be dipping pretty close by the last few days of September.
While doing my morning rounds, I took recordings for a garden tour video, then did a harvest.
It was while I was recording that I spotted the melon that had split overnight, so I made sure to pick that one, even though it was still tightly attached to its vine. The other one, however, turned out to have already dropped from its vine on its own!
There are a few Royal Burgundy bush beans, and a few of the green Seychelle pole beans. No Carminat pole beans today. I picked a couple of Purple Beauty peppers, then some Forme de Couer and Black Cherry tomatoes.
With today expected to be so hot, I also did a deep watering of the garden beds.
While I was watering in the old kitchen garden, I decided to actually taste one of the Black Cherry tomatoes. Just in case this is a type I can eat.
Nope.
Gag city. Ugh!!!
Since I was still watering, I was able to wash my mouth out with the hose. Even then, I went hunting among the tiny strawberries to find some I could eat to get the taste out of my mouth.
So far, the tiny Spoon tomatoes are still the only tomatoes I can eat fresh, without gagging. At least I can eat tomatoes after they’ve been processed into a soup or sauce or something, unlike peppers. Thankfully, it’s not an allergy, so if they’re processed in a sauce, as long as I can’t taste them, I’m fine. If they’re still in chunks or there’s enough that the taste is noticeable, I still can’t eat peppers, no matter how appetizing I find everything else about them!
At least the family likes them!
While I was back inside and having breakfast (at lunch time…) I got a lovely surprise phone call.
The roof panels I ordered for the catio and isolation shelter were in!
Since I’m going to be out for the next couple of days doing other things, today was the day to pick them up. First, we had to get some things ready, and move the catio beside the house.
I had already moved the pots with the summer squash in them to make room. My daughter and I moved the swing bench into the garage, then we cleared and swept the patio blocks.
How to carry the catio was a bit of a conundrum. There’s really no way to grip it well, except by the very bottom, at which point, it’s not very stable.
At some point, I should add pairs of handles to the frame.
My daughter had the solution, though. She went inside the catio, where she could lift the whole thing herself by gripping the frame on each side with her hands, and using her head on the roof mesh to lift from the middle! The only thing that made it difficult was the plastic that’s covering the top for a temporary roof. There was just enough of a wind to catch on it and try and blow it away. My job was just to stabilize it while she carried it over to the house.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t set the back against the house, as we wanted. Thanks to the elm tree planted in front of the house, some of the patio blocks are lifted out of place by the roots. The catio is just wide enough that the front rested over the highest point, making the whole thing wobble. We ended up rotating it so that the back now faces the concrete steps and landing by the main doors.
My daughter put food and water bowls inside while I ran into the house, because the phone was ringing.
As for the phone, I’ve been playing telephone tag with the guy that heads the local home care department. I had called and left a message this morning, and sure enough, this was him, calling me back. I wasn’t fast enough, and he’d left a message. So I called back right away… and left a message! I was expecting to leave for the hardware store soon, so I told him how long I expected to be. Then I remembered that I will have cell phone signal while away, so I called back and left my cell phone number.
Thankfully, he was able to call back before I left!
I told him about what was going on with my mother, including her actions that may lead her to being evicted. We tried to make an appointment to get together, but the day he suggested this week is when I’ll be taking a cat to the vet to get its nibs nipped. The week after that, he’s away, while the following week, I had only one day available for sure – that’s the week we can expect the exterminators to be coming out to my mother’s again, and I want to make sure I’m there, so make sure things actually happen, and she doesn’t get evicted. After that, I’ll be doing our stock up shopping.
Given the situation with my mother’s possible eviction if she doesn’t let the exterminator in to confirm the bed bugs are gone, he asked if I were available this Friday morning.
I said yes. I didn’t even care what time. We need to get this process started!
I’m not going to be getting much sleep this month.
So on Friday morning, I will go to his office, and we’ll do as much of the paperwork as we can. My mother will likely need to make another doctor’s appointment, but she’s now refusing to see her doctor, because her doctor is black and female. My mother did have the chest X-rays they need within the past few months, though, so we might be able to skip that. She is still supposed to get a brain scan, and that’s on the waiting list, so that would just need a confirmation.
After I see him, we’ll go to my mother’s place to go over the paperwork, explain things to her, and get her to sign the necessary authorizations. Which should include at least having home care meal preparation done. I’m hoping to convince her to add medication assist, too, to make sure she takes her meds when she is supposed to.
So that is all arranged for Friday.
Once that call was done, I headed out to my mother’s town and went to the hardware store. Before picking up the items, I got a quart of black outdoor paint for the catio, as well as galvanized steel strapping to secure the last section of mesh, next to the door hinges. I was thinking of nailing through the steel strapping, but it’s too thick, so I picked up a box of the smallest wood screws they had that will still be secure in the holes of the strapping. Finally, I picked up some screw hooks, which will secure a cat hammock in the cat isolation house. While I was paying for those, I gave my receipt for the stuff to pick up to the cashier, so she could complete the invoicing part of it (it was already paid for), then call the folks in back to let them know what was about to be picked up.
The roofing material turned out to be in an 8ft long roll, which is longer than my truck box. I rolled back the cover so that it could sit on top of the tail gate, then secured it against the tailgate with a Bungee cord.
I’m so glad I picked up that set of cords, the day we got the catio!
I also got my two bundles of wood lathe, which I hope will be the last I need for the current projects.
Once all was secure, I headed home, remembering to stop at the mail along the way, in case an Amazon order came in early, which they sometimes do. There were a couple of parcels waiting that seemed oddly shaped. They turned out to be stuff my husband had ordered elsewhere, so we’ve still got Amazon packages to come in. The store the post office is in closes at noon tomorrow, though, so I won’t be able to pick anything up until Thursday. We’ll see what time I come back from the vet with a groggy cat!
The catio will need to be painted before the roof is put on, though – or at least the top of the catio needs to be painted before the roof is put on. However, I want to paint the bottom of it, which means flipping it, so that needs to be done first.
If I get out there fast enough, I cat get that done tonight. The paint should then be cured before it gets dewy during the night. I’ll talk to the girls about painting the rest while I’m gone, tomorrow. My younger daughter is the only one that can go in, to paint the inside.
Which means, I need to finish this off, get out there and get painting!
It was a sort of double harvest. I wasn’t expecting to gather anything, but that first and oldest melon finally dropped off its vine. That thing is about 9 inches across! There were also a few San Marzano tomatoes, but I didn’t have a container, and the melon made it harder to carry things. So I put them in the old kitchen, then went back to the old kitchen garden to gather was it in the second photo. I found myself picking a good handful of those tiny strawberries. Then I checked the Black Cherry tomatoes and found quite a few I could pick, hidden among the leaves. Way more that I expected!
My brother and his wife were expecting to come early to drop off another load, but I left before they arrived, so I never saw them. I went to my mother’s town, got a few things done, then got to her place nice and early. I’m really glad I did, so I could go over the letter she got from the hospital. I knew the location, but when I looked it up on Google Maps street view, across a specific parking lot from the main entrance, but I couldn’t see where the clinic entrance was.
Turns out, that’s because it was recently built in the parking lot, and street view hasn’t been updated yet.
When we got there, I had to park illegally because there were not parking spots available anywhere. Not even disabled parking. I then helped my mother up the ramps from hell to the door.
They were excellent ramps. There was just 3 levels of them, switch-backed up to the door, and that was a LOT of walking for a 93 yr old woman with busted up knees, using a walker!
I then had to leave her to register herself so I could find somewhere to park – several blocks away!
Long story short, she had some very uncomfortable tests, but she now has a diagnosis, a new prescription to try, and a plan of action.
I also found out that she has NOT been making any effort to drink more water, and the most the nurse questioned her in preparation for the tests, the more obvious it became that a lot of her problems would improve if she simply drank more water. She’s only drinking the equivalent of 1 500ml water bottle a day! She’s digging in her heals on this one, though, as she is completely convinced it has to be food that’s causing her problems. Of course, it’s the food she needs the most that she’s decided are bad for her. *sigh*
That done, the clinic was able to fax her new prescription in, and make a follow up telephone appointment in 3 months for the doctor so ask her how it’s working and adjust the dose, if needed. There are other drugs that can be tried, but this one has basically no side effects, so that’s the one he’s starting with.
On the way to her home, we stopped at a restaurant in her town, as neither of us had eaten since about 9 or 10am, and we got to the restaurant at 6pm. She needed to take her evening pills, and had brought her bubble pack for the list of medications they needed, so she went to take those – without water – before we went in.
Which is when I saw that she’s been messing with her meds again. She’s taking her morning pills, but for the past few days, skipping her evening pills. When she got this evening’s pills, she took the one that is supposed to be taken before bed at the same time. Something she promised she would stop doing.
When we finally got to her place and opened the door, we found her mail on the floor. She started to try and distract me with one envelope that she said was an invitation, but it was the other one that got my attention. It was from the government public housing department that owns her building. When I mentioned that, she tried to dismiss is as probably being about her rent.
I opened it.
It was her final notice.
She refused to allow the exterminators in her suite again, which goes against her rental agreement. This is the second warning letter they’ve sent her. If she does it again, she will be evicted.
As I was reading this to her, she basically started to laugh about it. When I tried to stress the seriousness of this, she started ranting about the “drunkard” in another unit, and how they’re not kicking him out. Then she started saying “this isn’t Russia”.
She refuses to accept how serious the consequences of her actions are.
It is so incredibly frustrating. She is her own worse enemy!
*sigh*
After reading the letter, we moved on to the information booklet she was given and I briefly showed her the sections that gave her concrete actions to do – and one of them is, drink more water! That was as much as she was up to, and I left soon after.
I’ll be back in a couple of days to drive her to another appointment. I’ve updated the family about all this, and I hope my siblings can get through to her on just how much of a problem she is causing herself. Both about the eviction warning, and messing with her medications.
There’s not much we can do about it, either. Unless a doctor declares her cognitively unfit, and she isn’t there yet, she is going to have to face the consequences of her actions.
Ugh.
Enough about that.
Throughout the day, I was also getting messages from the Cat Lady. She was taking Button to the vet. When her mother was cat sitting for them, she noticed that Button was having trouble seeing at night. His hearing isn’t back, either, so both his eyes and ears were going to be checked.
He has also had quite the growth spurt – after being dewormed three times, he’s finally putting on weight! Even the clinic commented on how big he’s getting.
They have decided that his issue is basically being developmentally delayed. His eyes are healthy, but just not where they should be for his age. He was treated for eat mites, and they believe his hearing will also recover.
That’s the good news.
The frustrating news is, the person who was going to adopt him has instead adopted another cat and is no longer interested in him. Given his vision and hearing issues, the Cat Lady wants to make sure he goes with someone who can take care of these issues until he grows past them.
Assuming he gets adopted out at all.
It was recently confirmed that a cat of theirs that was startled by a noise and disappeared, was the victim of a coyote. The Cat Lady says that Button is helping to heal her heart. She absolutely adores him.
I really hope she finds someone for Button. They already have way too many cats from us! She’s still trying to get The Wolfman adopted out, but any time someone comes over to see him, he hisses and even swipes, and runs away!
I’m just sad that the potential adopter backed out. A vet – even a large animal vet – would have been the perfect placing for Button.
So that is where we are now, and I am ready to crawl into bed and pass out.
I just know that the moment my head hits the pillow, I’m going to suddenly be wide awake! That was me last night, so I can really, really use some real sleep tonight!
I honestly didn’t think I was going to get more progress on the isolation shelter today. After helping my brother and SIL unload their trailer, I went back to watering the garden, then stayed to do as much weeding around the winter squash as I could. I was feeling the heat and probably should have called it a day. I didn’t want to push myself too much, which I apparently did yesterday.
I was finishing up on my computer when I tucked my foot under my chair, only to get hit with a Charlie horse in the back of my thigh! Thankfully, I was able to stretch it out before it got bad, and managed to hobble over to take some ibuprofen. I was eventually able to sit down again.
Then I moved to tuck my right leg under my chair, and got another one!
I was able to stretch that one out, too, but I spent most of the night having to sleep with my legs stretched straight. Any time I tried to bend my knees, I could feel the muscles starting to cramp again. I even ended up sleeping on my back, which I never do, because it hurts.
Not as much as a Charlie horse, though!
In the end, though, as I was putting something away in the garage, I figured I could at least do the painting.
The other side of the ramp/door pieces were done, as where the last sides of the box “nests”.
In the second photo of the slideshow, you can see that I also decided to secure the scratching post/ramp to the second level.
At which point I figured, may as well keep going!
I moved the shelter to the doorway, so I could work in the sunshine. The light was much better, but by the time I was done, I was really feeling the heat!
The first image in the slideshow, I just tacked on the sheet of insulation I’d cut to size previously. You can see a patch I made near the top left corner. A piece was broken off there, so just cut it more or less square, than cut a piece from some of the excess insulation to fit. One edge of the sheet needed to have a bit of excess trimmed off to make it straight.
The insulation has a crack in it, and a few holes but, for the purpose, it should work fine.
In the next image, you can see how I’ve attached the first piece of 4′ wood lath. Once I made sure it was straight, lined up with the width of the shelter and secured with nails, I trimmed the rough edges of the insulation to be flush with the top of wood lath.
After that, each piece of lath was lined up with the one above and nailed in place, first in the centre, then on each end. I just found it easier to start in the middle.
In the next picture, you can see how it looks with the back completely covered.
The next thing to do was to secure the wire mesh in the lower level. For that, I had some painted wood lath that were a quarter inch shorter than they should have been. I cut one of them in half for the sides, then checked the length I needed. I wanted them to be flush with the pallet at the bottom, and the top edges extended a bit under the lath above, where there was a gap where the insulation ended. They were then lined up with the inside edge of the shelter frame and nailed in place. I positioned the nails as best as I could estimate where the mesh was, so that if the mesh gets pulled or pushed on by critters, the nails will prevent the wire from getting pulled out from between the wood.
Once those were secured, I measured and cut my last two painted pieces of wood lath to fit in between the side pieces. Those were also lined up with the inside edge of the frame, and nails were placed to ensure the wire mesh can’t be pulled loose.
You can see the finished frame in the next photo.
I then spent a bit of time considering what to do about the middle. There were only a couple of staples holding it in place. With the frame in place to secure it, there really wasn’t much concern that the wire mesh could be pulled off. However, if the middle were pushed loose from the inside, a cat could potentially get stuck between the vertical support and the mesh.
I could have added more staples, but I don’t trust those.
I decided to add one more piece of wood lath. The next image shows the entire back of the shelter, including the extra piece. The next time I will be painting things, I’ll paint that piece, too.
There is so very little paint left, though! I would be amazed if there was enough to finish painting the upper level, when it’s enclosed. Unless I manage to acquire the clear plastic I’m looking for to use instead of wood, to use as windows.
That brick on top isn’t supposed to be sitting on the frame. I had to move it while I was rolling the shelter out of the garage, because it was bouncing. I have the painted piece of wood that was originally going to be part of the floor up there. It will be used to raised the roof slightly in the front, to create a low slope – and will be what I attach hinges to, so we can lift the roof from the back. What I noticed is that the piece of wood is slightly bowed in the middle. If it had been used in the floor, as originally intended, that would not have mattered. It would have been screwed to the floor joist in the middle, which would have pulled it flat. As the hinged part of the roof, it might make a difference. So I’ve got it sitting across the top of the shelter, with the brick weighing down the bend, to slowly straighten it.
The next photo is of the upper level. The insulated box “nest” can fit under the resting shelf, or can be moved wherever is needed. Food and water bowls can go under the shelf as well, accessible through one of the access panels/door – whatever I ended up making.
When the doors/access panels are added, I plan to have one in the opening near the back and the other in the opening near the front. I’m still hoping to be able to make sliding doors as access panels, rather than hinged doors, but it will depend on what materials I find.
The bottom level is shown in the last photo. The sides will be enclosed with mesh, as well as the non-door half of the front.
I’m debating adding a mesh to cover the floor. It occurred to me that, if we ever have a mama with kittens in there, really small kittens could squeeze through those gaps between the pallet boards. I have some plastic mesh a friend sent to me that would be perfect for this. The mesh is fine enough that it won’t be a problem for little toe beans, but will also allow debris to fall through, such as anything kicked out of the litter box that would be on this level.
The non-insulated box nest will fit in this level. Eventually, both levels will get cat blankets or beds.
I’m still thinking of where to add a cat hammock of some sort. As I look at the photo of the shelter from the front, I’m thinking across the larger opening, maybe covering half of it, would work. This would help keep the upper level warm in the winter, and if I can cover the entire front with clear whatever I find, a cat could lay on it and enjoy looking outside.
Winter is something else to think about, when it comes to keeping things warm. The mesh on the bottom can be wrapped with plastic sheets to keep the weather out, and at least some of the cold, in the winter. As long as the top has a heat lamp or something similarly safe, it will be a welcome shelter for the cats, in addition to what we already have. If no cats need to be kept isolated, we plan to just leave the door/ramp on the bottom open, so they can go in and out any time they please. That way, when we do have to isolate a cat, it will already be familiar with the shelter, and not afraid.
At least, that’s the theory!
I’m glad I was able to get at least this much done on the shelter, since it will be a while before I can work on it again. I’ll be away most of tomorrow, I’ve got one day at home, then two days of driving around. In that one day I’ve got, I need to find a way to secure the broken mesh on the catio. The girls and I will be moving the swing bench away from the house and into a spot I prepared for it in the garage, in front of my mother’s car. It will finally be out of the weather, and kittens can still enjoy sleeping on it in there.
Once the area the swing bench is currently on is cleared and cleaned up the catio will be moved there. Any last work that needs to be done on it can be done on site. Plus, we should be able to see into it from the kitchen window.
Knowing the yard cats, they’ll be climbing onto the top and looking back at us!
I’d hoped to have the isolation shelter done by now, but it will be some time before we have all the materials to finish it. If we need to isolate a cat, the catio is what we have to use. All it needs is to get that torn mesh secured. It’s unlikely a cat would go through there, but it is possible.
We’re booked to get one male’s nibs nipped in a few days. If we can get one of the males in there for the overnight fast, with one of the carriers in there as a bed, that might make things easier for us!
I hope.
Next month, the rescue has us booked for two males. If all goes well, they’ll be able to lend us a trap (I think the last person they lent it two is still ghosting them) and we can start getting the females before they go into heat in the spring!
It’s slow going, but we’re finally getting some progress on getting more yard cats fixed!
This clinic also has a new program they’ve started. Any females up to 5 months old will be spayed for only $150, including shots and tattoos. Cats can go into heat as early as 6 months, so they’re trying to encourage people to get them done young. Getting a spay typically costs about $350 – $375 – some places almost $400! Which makes it really difficult to get strays, ferals and semi-ferals done. Especially at a time when people can barely afford to buy food for themselves. Neuters are typically half what a spay is, so this deal is pretty much getting a spay for less than the cost of a neuter.
Some of our kittens may already be too old for this program; the ones born in late April/early May, like Kohl and Rabi. Some were born in June and would qualify for another month or so.
Which would be a good time to remind readers that there is a donation button at the top of the page! The rescue has been very helpful in covering costs, but they are struggling, too. If we can take advantage of low cost spays, that would be amazing.
The irony is not lost on me that, if we weren’t spending so much money on cat food, we would be able to do at least one spay a month, if we had to, and we wouldn’t have this over population problem!
What can I say. We’re sucks for the cats! We’re certainly not going to stop feeding them. Given the condition of some of the cats we see when they come back for the winter, they wouldn’t last long if they had to live on their own hunting, and starvation is a horrible way to go. Nope. Not gonna happen here.
There was barely a handful of all three types of beans. At this time of year, having any at all is a treat.
There is one melon that came off its stem, but I’m not sure if that was because it was ripe. This melon was starting to soften in a spot next to the stem.
I grabbed a couple of the largest Dragonfly peppers, and the single Goldy zucchini and G star patty pan. The zucchini does have a couple more on the plant that can be harvested in a few days. The G Star patty pans are still blooming, but I’m not seeing any developing squash. The white patty pans are blooming lots, but still only male flowers.
The red tomatoes are all Forme De Couer – including the one green one. I was trying to get a red tomato, and the green one broke off, instead! The small tomatoes are the Black Cherry tomatoes.
I was in the process of watering the old kitchen garden from the rain barrel when my brother and his wife showed up with another load. While my brother was clearing the space they wanted to unload into, I was able to give my SIL some tomatoes. She chose the red tomatoes, but tried a Black Cherry, too. As we were leaving the yard, I spotted a single Chocolate cherry and gave it to her to try, and asked her if she could taste any difference. The Black Cherry tomatoes aren’t getting any darker, and look just like the Chocolate cherries, so I was curious. She didn’t find a lot of difference in the taste, except that the Black Cherry seems a touch sweeter, while the Chocolate cherry seemed a bit more acidic. She really liked both.
After that, I helped them unload, and they are on their way home. After a hydration break, I’m heading back out to finish watering the garden. We’re expected to reach a high of 24C/75F today, which isn’t too bad. Over the next couple of days, we’re supposed to hit highs of 28C/82F, and later in the week, we’re even supposed to reach 30C/86F. On the 10th, our average first frost date, we’re expected to have a high of 28C/82F, and a low of 13C/55F. Which would mean no danger of frost at all!
Looking at the long range forecast, it will be another 10 days before we start getting overnight lows below 10C/50F again. We’ve dropped down to 6C/43F a few times over the past week. If the long range forecasts are at all accurate, we won’t get those lows again until the last week or so of September, and won’t get risk of frost temperatures until October.
I wouldn’t be surprised if all those forecasts changed by the end of the day, but if it does, I hope it changes to warmer, not cooler, temperatures! The garden needs every frost free day it can get!
Still, I’m happy with what we have. It is more than I was expecting for this year!
The Re-Farmer 